Replacing Sodium in Processed Meats Using Traditionally Brewed Soy Sauce and Fermented Flavor Enhancer

Abstract

Sodium chloride (NaCl) serves as a key ingredient in processed meats contributing to both quality and food safety. Continued interest exists in identifying NaCl replacement ingredients with saltiness potentiation while still preserving important functional properties. An approach to identify ingredients with sodium reduction potential is to first critically evaluate their efficacy in replacement studies followed by reduction investigation. The use of traditionally brewed soy sauce (SS) and fermented flavor enhancer (NFE) has previously shown potential as effective sodium replacement and reduction ingredients for frankfurters; however, their efficacy in other meat products having different sodium chloride needs is not well understood. In this study, 7 treatments [100% flake salt (FS) and 25, 50, and 75% SS or NFE replacement of the NaCl provided by FS] were investigated in bacon, beef jerky, summer sausage, and boneless ham to understand what impact SS or NFE had on sensory properties including salty taste, and product qualities such as color, purge, and texture profiles. Replacement levels of FS with either SS or NFE for bacon (50 and 75% SS or NFE), beef jerky (50 and 75% SS or NFE), and summer sausage (50% SS and 50% NFE) were identified that provided increases (P < 0.05) for saltiness sensory responses without negatively impacting sensory or quality attributes. For boneless ham, a replacement level that provided an increase for saltiness was not identified (P > 0.05). These results indicated that SS and NFE may be suitable ingredients to utilize in processed meat products to replace flake salt for sodium reduction strategies offering minimal negative impacts of quality and sensory attributes.